View the expert speakers and panelists who are confirmed to present at Global Food Contact 2022!
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Bio coming soon!
Tina Robertson is a Senior Regulatory Affairs Manager, Food Contact Materials at knoell USA LLC, based out of Chicago. She provides regulatory support and to ensure compliance of food contact materials, reviews product compositions in accordance with global regulations, and prepares registration dossiers of food contact materials (FCM) in USA, EU, and Asia. She has a law degree from the University of Alabama, School of Law and is a member of the Illinois state bar. She has a background in assessing and maintaining regulatory compliance for the food contact consumer goods industry in a variety of markets including US and EU as well as years of industry experience in a compliance role for food contact packaging ranging from plastic dairy closures to infant formula lids.
Currently Worldwide VP Quality, Safety, Health, Environment and R&D at Tupperware Brands, Matthieu is heading the Quality, Regulatory, Sustainability, Safety, Health and Environment organizations of Tupperware. Strategic Supply Chain Executor, with proven global impact, Matthieu for the past 25 years, has been leading, setting up, developing and transforming Global Supply Chain organizations around improving products, processes and organizations to make them better, more efficient, reliable, sustainable, safe and cost effective.
First Responsible of production teams of increased size in the Cosmetic (Procter & Gamble), Pharmaceutical (Alcon Laboratories) and chemical industry (ECOLAB), Matthieu has, for the last 15 year, held continuous improvement and quality positions where he has been envisioning, designing, structuring effectively strategic Worldwide programs and initiatives, ensuring local adoption and execution. Matthieu hold a MSc in engineering, an INSEAD MBA and is Lean Six Sigma Black Belt trained.
Bastiaan Schupp works since mid-2011 as legislative officer on food contact materials in DG Health and Food Safety of the European Commission. His main responsibly is the implementation of the specific measures on food contact materials presently in force, particularly on plastics, recycled plastics, and he participates in general policy development on food contact materials. He joined the Commission in 2005 and has worked on various risk related topics, including societal vulnerability to dangerous chemicals and man-made risks. He is a chemical engineer and has a background in risk management.
Anthony has been with TerraCycle since 2012 when he joined the TerraCycle Canada team in Toronto as a Business Development Manager. Since then, he has helped TerraCycle and Loop partners work towards their sustainability goals in both the B2C and B2B space. As the EVP, Business Development for both TerraCycle and Loop, Anthony develops the company-wide sales strategy and manages TerraCycle Inc.’s 60+ person global sales. Anthony has 15+ years of business development experience and prior to joining TerraCycle he worked in Toronto, Dijon, Budapest, and Vienna for some of the world’s largest professional service firms and financial institutions.
Hélène has been working for over 20 years for the Finnish forest industry company, Metsä Board. She has held various positions within the R&D, product development as well as in the production unit.
Currently she works as a Barrier Development Director in Metsä Board’s Development function. Her main focus is the development of dispersion barrier coated boards and their applications. Previously, she worked closely in the customer interface where she entered deeply into customers’ requirements in order to find solutions for their packaging challenges.
Tim is Co-founder & Managing Director of Vytal, the world's largest digital and deposit-free reusable packaging system for takeout, delivery and convenience food with the objective to eliminate single-use packaging waste. Originally from Cologne, he studied Business at WHU-Otto Beisheim School of Management, Public Policy and Social-Cognitive Psychology before working at Boston Consulting Group and various startups. Tim has a strong passion to tackle huge challenges with entrepreneurship and he always enjoys a good game of soccer.
A postgraduate with Masters degree in Chemical Engineering and Business Administration studies.
Worked in paper production, R&D, as well as business management for Sappi in the field of paper packaging. Lead the packaging development and innovation process for a large private brand food retailer in South Africa (Woolworths).Moved to Mpact as a Packaging Innovation Manager to build a paper packaging innovation team within R&D. Since 2019 with Nestle as Packaging Expert, leading the packaging science and technology platform for the global Confectionary business unit with particular focus on fibre-based packaging.
Bio coming soon!
Bio coming soon.
Jenny is the Chief Sustainability Officer at Trivium Packaging and a seasoned global leader with experience from big brands like Shell and Avery Dennison. As a Dutch national, sustainability is in her DNA and her true passion. She believes sustainability is no longer a choice, but an imperative for the success of any company. At Trivium she is committed to positively impacting the lives of millions of people through the company’s sustainable and circular product offerings.
Dr. Paul Honigfort is the Director of the Division of Food Contact Substances, Office of Food Additive Safety, which is part of the United States Food and Drug Administration (US FDA). The Division of Food Contact Substances is the segment of the US Government responsible for all regulatory actions for all materials that contact food, including food packaging.
Dr. Honigfort has over 18 years of experience with food contact materials and food additive regulations. As Director of the Division of Food Contact Substances, Dr. Honigfort oversees all US Government regulatory matters pertaining to food packaging. Dr. Honigfort is also the United States Delegate to the Codex Committee on Food Additives, which formulates international standards on the safe use and fair trade of food additives. Prior to his time at FDA, Dr. Honigfort worked for GE Plastics as an Advanced Materials Developer specializing in engineering thermoplastics and food packaging materials. Dr. Honigfort received his doctorate in polymer science in 2000 from the University of Akron in Akron, Ohio, USA.
Ms. Xiaolu Wang is a Senior Chemical Regulatory Compliance Consultant with Verisk 3E. Xiaolu has over eight years of experience working in the field of EHS compliance, focusing on regulatory compliance for consumer packaged goods (CPG), including food, food additives, food contact materials, cosmetics, and personal care products. Xiaolu is a frequent speaker at the Global Food Contact Conferences and serves as a member of the Advisory Board.
Xiaolu is a licensed attorney admitted to the bars of the State of New York, District of Columbia, and China. She is a native speaker of Mandarin Chinese and is fluent in English.
Dr. Zhongwen Wang is a scientific evaluator at Food Packaging Materials and Incidental Additives Section, Chemical Health Hazard Assessment Division, Bureau of Chemical Safety, Food Directorate, Health Products and Food Branch, Health Canada. Her main responsibility is to conduct premarket assessment for the chemical safety of food packaging materials.
Dr. Wang has been with Bureau of Chemical Safety for more than 10 years. Prior to this, she worked in food research area. Her expertise includes food analysis, organometallic analysis, environmental analysis, etc. As a principle investigator, she has participated in various horizontal projects, such as, Chemical Management Plan (CMP), Canadian Total Diet Study (TDS), the Maternal-Infant Research on Environmental Chemicals (MIREC), Northern Contamination Program (NCP), etc. Her research provided useful datasets for Canadian food safety evaluation.
Dr wang holds a Ph. D. degree in environmental analytical chemistry from Chinese Academy of Sciences, and she pursued her post-doc research in environmental and clinical analysis in University of Alberta.
Peter Désilets is Managing Director and Co-founder of pacoon Sustainability Concepts GmbH, based in Munich and Hamburg, Germany. PACOON is a leading agency in Europe for sustainable packaging solutions.
PACOON has been following developments in sustainability for over 13 years and organised the 'SOLPACK - International Conference for Sustainable Packaging' four times with latest news and trends in material, technologies, strategies and concepts. PACOON organises training courses and workshops and advises companies on evaluating and developing solutions.
The agency has a broad network of internationals suppliers and institutes and is itself involved in several customer and funding projects for innovative food packaging.
Joan Baughan practices food and drug law, focusing on US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and comparable international regulation of food contact materials, drugs, cosmetics, and medical devices. With a distinctive legal and scientific background in microbiology and medical technology, Joan helps clients establish regulatory compliance for their products globally, performs compliance audits and training seminars, and represents companies and trade associations before US agencies and their international counterparts.
Joan Baughan also developed substantial experience in Brussels, counselling clients on the regulation of food packaging materials and medicinal products under European Union and Member State legislation.
Ahsha has been in food safety for decade plus. In that time taking his animal science & public health internship background into the food industry. Starting as a public health intern in the state of Kansas, he could see how much of an impact food safety had on the population. He has worked for both USDA/FDA food productions in Ready to Eat Foods, and now in the home delivery market. He was able to lead HelloFresh in becoming the first meal kit company in the world to receive GSFI certification.
Areas of Focus: Product Safety, Private Brands, Quality and Compliance, Professional Development of Team, Servant Leadership, Strategic Planning, Negotiations, Global Sourcing
A results-driven and accomplished professional with progressive experience in maintaining product safety, process improvement, professional development, enforcing regulatory compliance, and strategic planning. Develops and implements tools to merge regulatory compliance with business needs securing long-term profitability.
Professor Ariosti is a Chemical Engineer (1981, National University of Buenos Aires) with two post-degrees: a Master on Food Science and Technology (1983, National University of Mar del Plata) and a Specialization on Plastics Conversion Technologies (2005, National University of San Martín).
He received scholarships for technical training on food packaging and other sanitary applications of plastics, at the Istituto Superiore di Sanità (Roma, Italy) (1987), the Svenska Quality Management Group (Stockholm, 1987), the Japan Packaging Institute/JICA (Tokyo, 1991), and the Iberoamerican (Latin America + Spain + Portugal) CYTED (Science and Technology for Development) Program Center (Antigua Guatemala, 2002).
He works at the National Institute of Industrial Technology (INTI) - Plastics Centre of Argentina since 1984, dealing with food packaging, materials interactions with foodstuffs, packaging and environment, and regulatory issues. He has been Deputy of the Plastics Centre (1997-2002) and also its Director (2002-2007). Now he is mainly involved with senior technical assistance and training, and with the MERCOSUR Packaging Group for the development of FCMs regulations.
Since 1991 he represents INTI at the MERCOSUR Food Packaging Group, which developed the block regulations on different food contact materials, and since 1984 at the Argentine Institute of Standardization and Certification (IRAM).
Stephen Klump is the Global Manager, Food Contact Regulatory Compliance at PPG Industries in the Product Stewardship Department. This role currently focuses on food contact applications for PPG’s Kitchen & Industrial Bakeware division.
Dr. Klump has more than 16 years’ experience in the food contact material safety and compliance space. Prior to PPG, Dr. Klump got his start in packaging food safety with a three year assignment at Nestlé’s Research Center in Lausanne Switzerland. There, he developed analytical testing methods for packaging chemical migrants. Subsequently, Dr. Klump held regional and global responsibilities in the packaging safety and compliance program at Nestlé.
Dr. Klump earned a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from Ohio State University in the USA. Before this, he earned an MS in Inorganic Chemistry from St. Louis University. Stephen started his professional career with BASF in the automotive coatings division. Currently, Dr. Klump lives and works in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania.
Simona Bălan, PhD, is a Senior Environmental Scientist at the California Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC), where she researches potential exposures and adverse impacts from the use of harmful chemicals in consumer products and implements the California Safer Consumer Products (SCP) regulations. Since 2016, she has been leading the SCP teams working on regulating per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) in certain consumer products. Before joining DTSC, she was Senior Scientist at the Green Science Policy Institute, managing international projects on the use of flame retardants and PFASs in consumer products. She also lectures at UC Berkeley in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management and in the School of Public Health. She has a PhD in Environmental Science, Policy and Management from UC Berkeley, and a BSc in Earth and Planetary Sciences from Jacobs University Bremen, Germany.
Sagar has spent more than 12 years in the Packaging domain. After completing his Masters in Green Technology he has been aligned to work in areas of Sustainable Packaging. Concept-2-Commercialization is his core strength. His heart is in understanding product applications & developing solutions on its basis.
Nathan Pajka, Sustainability Specialist, Metsӓ Board, Americas, works in tandem with the Product Safety and Sustainability team in Finland to provide a range of sustainability services to the Americas and serves as Metsä Board’s sustainability expert in the region. Based in the Norwalk, CT, office, he is responsible for providing sustainability data, information and education to help clients reduce the environmental impact of their packaging. Before joining Metsӓ, he worked for one of the largest healthcare companies in Massachusetts as well as serving as a sustainability ambassador for one of the largest utilities in New England. Nathan holds an MBA in Sustainability and Social Change and an MS in Environmental Science and Policy from Clark University, Worcester, MA.
For the past 6 years, Dustin Schadt has worked with Stora Enso as the Director of Business Development and Key Account Manager for Specialty Papers and Packaging Materials in North America. His key objective is to build partnerships with Retailers, Brand Owners, and Converters who have specific Objectives to increase the effectiveness of their Paper and Packaging. Though Quality, Service, and Logistics are all key objectives for these companies, Dustin focuses on clients whose primary goal is to find Sustainable Packaging Solutions. Bringing 18 years of experience from the Folding Carton Industry, he ties in many different components of the supply chain in order to find innovative solutions and bring value to the changing market. When he’s not talking about micro fibers, blank paper, or empty boxes, Dustin likes to travel with his family, creating many adventures along the way. Between his love for family and love for paper, there’s never a moment to rest.
Svetlana Epifanova has been working as a Senior Packaging Specifications Manager within Danone since 2017. Within her role in the Specialized Nutrition department, she is responsible for the validation of food contact materials on regulatory compliance and food safety, assuring that infants, young children and patients receive the safest packaging possible. Another part of this role, is the negotiation on quality agreements with packaging suppliers, that requires both external as internal cross-functional collaboration with her colleagues in USA, Mercosur, China, Asia and European countries.
Mr. Kenny founded Decernis in 2003 and is an experienced regulatory attorney who has worked and consulted for 25 years in the food and consumer products space. He advises some of the world’s largest manufacturers on Food Additive, Food Contact and Supply Chain compliance challenges globally.
Mr. Kenny is responsible for both the regulatory content of Decernis products and its Subject Matter Expertise across the 226 countries Decernis covers. Beginning in January 2020, Mr. Kenny acted as Executive Director of Decernis’ recently expanded global advisory services team, having headed international consulting projects on four continents over two decades. In September 2020, he was named Senior Vice President of Managed Services at Decernis’ parent company, FoodChain ID, in addition to leading Decernis.
Ms. Maxwell, Research Fellow in Corporate Scientific and Regulatory Affairs at Ocean Spray Cranberries, Inc. brings expertise in global finished foods labeling and claims as well as additives and flavors. Prior to Ocean Spray, she led the Scientific and Regulatory Affairs management function at Nestle USA responsible for all the retail/food service brands for North America. Her employment history includes Director-level global regulatory compliance group management at Cargill, Inc., Wild Flavors, Inc. as well as McCormick & Company and Givaudan where she describes her role as managing, motivating, coordinating and influencing multi-disciplinary functions to accomplish strategic business goals, anticipating regulatory obstacles/emerging issues throughout product lifecycle and developing solutions with other technical/commercial teams across global geographies (essentially herding cats!).
Ms. Maxwell is a proud graduate of University of Illinois – Champaign/Urbana with BS degree in Food Science and additional post graduate study in Carbohydrate Chemistry.
Always lively and engaging, Ms. Maxwell turns conventional wisdom on its ear using comprehensive data that offers a compelling look at new regulatory trends. Her insights are drawn in part from Washington DC colleagues, as well as her global network “cabinet” of industry professionals and the occasional bureaucrat.
Renata Cerqueira is Cargill’s LATAM Quality Chemistry Leader, as well as, a Pharmacist, Master in Food Toxicology, Specialization in Food Science and Food Technology with an MBA in Quality and Business with 23 years of experience in food and chemical companies in Quality and Food Safety.
Ron Osborn is currently a Principal Scientist for the Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company, at their Global Innovation Center in Chicago, IL. He is a member of the Scientific and Regulatory Affairs group and is primarily responsible for the Safety and Regulatory Compliance assessments of food contact materials. Additional responsibilities include safety evaluations of the seasonal add-on items marketed with Wrigley products and leading the development of Wrigley’s Packaging Compliance Management System. Prior to his current position, Ron had a successful 20 year career in the analytical laboratory.
Alistair manages the Food Packaging Safety Section within Smithers. This involves advising clients on the safety legislation which applies to food packaging in a wide range of different countries throughout the world and coordinating work programmes to ensure that clients' products meet these requirements. His expertise spans all the EU countries, USA, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Israel, Russia and all the South American countries.
Alistair graduated with a degree and PhD in Chemistry from Birmingham University. After working for BP and the Department of Health, he joined Smithers in 1994, taking up his current position in 1995.
